Chair fastener



y 22, 1941- H. E. I =ULTON 2,249,892.

CHAIR FASTENER Filed Sept. 6, 1940 Patented July 22, 1941 UNETED STATESPATENT QFFICE 2,2 l9,892 mm Fas'rnNEa V V Harry E. Fulton,Bernardsville, J. Application September 6, l94il, Serial No. 355,675

6 Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in chair fasteners andmore particularly to that type of fastener which is secured beneath thebottom of the chair and forms a brace for the chair legs.

Although the invention is characterized as a v chair fastener or braceit will be understood that 'it is equally applicable to tables and toany other articles of furniture.

-An object of theinvention is to produce for commercial marketablepurposes an economically manufactured easily installable device ofieredto the trade in a simple set-up form so that the merest novice may applyit without error in the proper mode of its application to secure all ofits benefits.

-' Another object of the invention is to provide a chair fastener or thelike in which the central turnbuckle is made of compact form and short ylength because of the condition I create in enabling the main roughadjustment of the wires 4 i to beaccomplished manually, thus leaving tothe turnbuckle device only a relatively short and small finaladjustment; and in this way the entire --adjustment and application ofthe wires and turnbuckle device may be achieved much more satisfactorilyand quickly with a smaller set-up whereby all the components of themechanical centralized pulling action are localized in this centralplane. a

A still further object of the invention is to provide a simple form ofdevice which may be r packaged in small compass for low transporta tioncharges and reduced selling price.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention will be morefully described hereinafter, and will be more particularly pointed outin the claims appended hereto.

In the drawing, wherein like symbols referto like or corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

Figure l is a top plan view of an article of furniture, with partsbroken away and parts ,shown in section, showing the improved fastener.Figure 2 is a front elevational view of the same, with parts of the legsbroken away.

Figure 3 is a perspective View of one of the Figure 4 is a similar viewbut with the nut and washer separated. v

Figure 5 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the use of pins onthe washer instead of the top flange.

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a modified form of nut employed, and

Figure 7 is a similar view of a further modified form of nut.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, l0 designates a bottom of achair of which II are the legs and I2 the aprons.

Hooks l3 are'secured to the chair legs as one means for accommodatingthe loops I4 at the outer ends of'the wires or other connections l5. Itwill be understood that the wires may be secured or affixed to the chairlegs H in any suitable way other than by the use of the hooks l3 andloops l4. l

I employ four wires [5. Each of these wires is separate and individualand is manufactured separately and selected from any kind, character andgauge of wire or other material possessing sufiicient flexibility andstrength for the purpose.

- The inner ends of these four wires are brought together to theturnbuckle device which consists generally of the shaft or rod l6 and ofthe nut devices threaded thereon. The shaft l6 has right and leftthreaded end portions l1 and I8 and the nuts 19 and 20 are threadedaccordingly and run upon such threads I! and [8. The shaft 15 isrotatable while the nutsare nonrotatable. Therefore on rotation of theshaft in one direction the nuts will travel axially toward the center ofthe shaft, that is to say together; while on rotation of the shaft It inthe opposite sense or direction the two nuts will be caused to moveapart or away from one another. For the purpose of convenience inrotating the shaft the central portion thereof may be formed with anopening or eye 2!. It is usual to make a turnbuckle in this form withthe central eye adapted to receive a nail, rod or other implementtherethrough to give leverage for convenience in rotating the shaft [6when the nuts 9 and 2!] are drawn together in the act of tightening thewires I5. In forming the eye 2| in such turnbuckle shafts or rods it iscustomary to flatten the rod to increase the diameter about the eye butsuch flattened portion has no significance in connection with thepresent invention.

- In fact any other form of central part of the improved nut and washerassemblies with portions of two wires shown in the interlocked positiontherein.

shaft may be used with which to cause rotation of the shaft; forinstance the central portion may be made square or hexangle to take awrench.

However it is not so convenient to get a wrench into this position inconnection with a chair fastener and therefore I prefer the constructionhaving the eye 2|.

The nuts l9 and 20 may be of usual and standard form of nut. With eachnut is associated a washer 22 having a center opening or.hole 23 of adiameter slightly in excess of the external diameter of the threadedportions of the shaft to enable such washer to move freely in an axialdirection back and forth along the shaft without interference from thethreads thereof whereby the washer may move toward the inner face of thenut to clamp the terminals 24 of the wires l between the washers and thenuts. The inner ends of the wires are received through eyelets 25 whichopen through a center hole 23 and are arranged at diametrically oppositesides of a vertical center line of a washer which is co-incident withthe axial plane of the shaft It. The two eyelets 25 of each washer liein a substantially horizontal plane when the turnbuckle device issuspended by the wires l5 in their taut condition in actual use. 7

Notches 26 aremade in the outer edges of the Washers 22 in horizontalalinement with eyelets 25 in order to receive the wires at the innerportions of their tension lines from the chair legs and to guide suchwires and tend to retain the wires and the turnbuckle device all in thesame horizontal plane.

The washers 22 are provided with lower flanges 2'. which extend beneathand overlap the lower edges of their respective nuts i9 and 28. Thisavoids any casual or accidental rotation of the nut.

In the use of this form of the device the outer ends of the Wires beingengaged with the chair legs, the inner ends are brought into the notches26, passed diametrically across the inner faces of the, washers 22,passed through the eyelets be bent back and forth for the purpose ofbreaking the same 01f. This will eliminate the necessity for making anydisposal of loose wire ends such as wrapping the same around the wiresI5 or about the nut assemblies or carelessly allowing the same todepend. The vise action therefore makes for a neat finish.

Instead of the top flange 28 holes may be formed in the washer toreceive posts or pins 29, as shown in Figure 5, for the same purpose.The posts are affixed in the holes of the washer in any desired manner.

As will be apparent from Figure 2 the axis of the shaft l6 and thereforeof the nuts and washers is in the same horizontal plane with the wires15 and the points of connection of the wires with the hooks l3.Therefore the mechanical pull exerted upon all four separate wires bythe single central turnbuckle device is all in the same axial plane andno distortion of any of the parts is possible.

In practice the size of the shaft [6 will be four inches and each wirewill be twelve inches in length. Dependent on the size of the piece offurniture more or less of the length of each wire IE will be needed.Such a length of wire will accommodate all sizes of furniture. With thesmaller articles of furniture the excess of the wire may be broken offin the Vises as above described so that irrespective of the length ofwire provision is made by the invention for getting rid of the excessand making a uniform neat finish in all jobs large or small.

It is desirable to keep the washers in an upright position. If thewasher is tilted the large center hole 23 tends to close upon thethreads of the shaft i6 and tends to bind and drag on the threads in amanner to ruin such threads. It

25 and pulled through the space between the washers and the nuts. Bypulling strongly upon the outer ends of the wires a rough generaladjustment can be made manually. By using four wires each of which isindependent of the other and having the loose ends for this roughgeneral manual adjustment, the tension lines of the wires between thechair legs and the notches 26 may be pulled very tight. Such manualadjustment leaves only a small margin of adjustment to the turnbuckledevice which enables me to make such turnbuckle device small, short, ofa small amount of material and very compact for shipping and salepurposes. Theshaft I6 need only be approximately four inches in overalllength with its threaded portions an inch and one-half in length each asthe nuts l9 and 20 are only required to travel a short axial distance tosecure a final extreme high tight adjustment.

Moreover in the clamped position the nut and washer assembly form Visesalong their outer edges in which the excess of the wire ends may will benoted particularly from Figure 2 that it is necessary to bring theterminal end of the wire under its tension line after reeving the wirethrough the washer and nut assembly and this causes the terminal end ofthe wire between the washer and nut to be below the center line of thewasher. Such terminal end therefore presents an eccentric fulcrum onwhich the washer tends to cant or tilt diagonally. Inasmuch as thisfulcrum is below the center line of the Washer the upper flange 28 orthe pins 29 is provided on the opposite side of the center washer tooffset any angular movement of the washer out of the vertical.

The requirement for diminished length in shaft [6 and the arrangement ofthe device for initial manual rough adjustment makes it possible tosecure a relatively small inexpensive commercial package evenconsidering the ample lengths of the four wires.

Referring more particularly to Figure 6, a modified form of the deviceis shown in that nuts 30 may be substituted for the nut and washerassemblies, such nuts being standard and of very much the same characteras the nuts 19 and 20. Instead of employing washers in connection withthe nuts 30, such nuts are punched to provide eyelets 3| directlythrough the stock of the nuts into which the ends of the wire areinserted and clinched in any suitable manner, as by overturning the wireends upon the nuts in a complete loop or circular formation and thentwisting the end of the wire about the tension line thereof.

In Figure 7 there is shown a modification of this construction in whicha nut 32 of a much thinner stock is employed. Owing to the difficulty ofpunching nuts such as 30 in Figure 6 because of the thickness of thestandard stock, it is desirable to use a thinner stock. This facilitatesthe punching operation but creates a new problem in that the thin nut 32is not well suited to taking the threads. For this purpose male andfemale dies are employed to extrude a central portion 33 of the nut 32thus giving to this boss or collar 33 an increased axial length and areato adapt it to the functions of a nut.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made in thedetails of construction and design of the above specifically describedembodiment of this invention without departing from the spirit thereof,such changes and modifications being restricted only by the scope of thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a fastener for chairs and the like having legs, a short shafthaving reversely threaded portions, nuts run on said reversely threadedportions, washers associated with the inner faces of said nuts andhaving eyelets, said washers movable toward and from the inner faces ofsaid nuts, and wires from the chair legs having their inner ends engagedthrough said eyelets and clamped between the nuts and washers.

2. In a fastener for chairs and the like having legs, a short shafthaving reversely threaded portions, nuts run on said reversely threadedportions of said shaft, a washer associated with the inner face of eachnut having an unthreaded opening larger than the diameter of the shaftfitted loosely over the threads thereof and movable axially toward andfrom the inner face of each nut, said washer having eyeletscommunicating with the opening, and wires coming from the chair legs andhaving their inner ends inserted through said openings and eyelets withtheir terminals lying clamped between the washers and respective nuts,said wires tending to hold the washers against the inner travel of thenuts to develop high clamping action on the wire terminals.

3. In a fastener for chairs and the like having legs, a shaft havingreversely threaded portions, nuts run on said reversely threadedportions of the shaft, and a washer loosely received over the shaft] andrelatively movable adjacent the inner face of each nut, means betweensaid washer and its nut to lock the washer against rotary motion, andwires coming from the chair legs having inner end portions clampedbetween said washers and nuts.

4. In a fastener for chairs and the like having legs, a shaft havingreversely threaded portions, nuts run on said reversely threadedportions of face each nut, connections coming from the chair legs andhaving end portions clamped between said washers and nuts, and meansbetween the washers and nuts for maintaining the washers in uprightposition and against any tilting action incident to fulcruming on saidend portions of the connections.

5. In a fastener for chairs and the like having legs, a shaft havingreversely threaded portions, nuts run on said reversely threadedportions of the shaft, a washer associated with the inner face each nutand having an unthreaded opening fitted loosely over the threads of theshaft and movable relatively axially along the shaft with respect to theinner face of its respective nut, said washer also having diametricallyopposite eyelets opening into said opening, said washer also having aflange overturned upon one edge of said nut to avoid relative rotationof the nut and its washer, said washer also having a second shallowerflange nearer the center of the washer and adapted to abut against theinner face of said nut, and wires coming from the chair legs havinginner end portions inserted through said opening and eyelets and havingterminal ends lying between the nuts and their respective washers, saidterminal ends being brought out below the line of said wires at oppositesides of the vertical center of the washer.

6. In a fastener for chairs and the like having legs, a rotatable shafthaving reversely threaded portions, non-rotating nuts threaded on theoppositely threaded portions of said shaft for axial movement along theshaft on the rotation of said shaft, washers non-rotatably associatedwith said shaft and movable freely axially towards the inner faces ofsaid nuts, means between each washer and its nut for holding the washeragainst rotation, and wires coming from the chair legs, said washershaving eyelets at diametrically opposite sides of the vertical plane ofthe axial line of said shaft for receiving therethrough the inner endportions of said wires, the terminal portions of which are outturnedbetween the washers and. nuts for binding engagement therebetween, meansbetween the washers and nuts for resisting any diagonal tilting of thewashers incident to rotating on said wire terminals, said washers havingnotches in their outer side edges in substantial alinement with saideyelets to cause the lines of the wires to extend from the chair legs tothe notches and the eyelets all in a common horizontal plane co-axialwith said shaft, the adjacent edges of said washers and nuts forming avise for the breaking off of the excess wire ends.

HARRY E. FULTON.

